Jesus asked a penetrating question of His followers. He did so because there were a great many opinions among the people as to who He might be. This was shown in the response of disciples to the question. They said that some believed Him to be John the Baptist or the prophet Elijah, or one of the other Old Testament prophets come back to life. It was Peter who discerned who He truly was, the Christ, the promised Messiah who came to save and deliver. Jesus believed it was imperative His disciples knew the truth of who He was. He still does, and our need in these days to know His reality is desperate.
A recent survey said that only 44% of those who identify as born-again believers in Christ believed that He lived a sinless life. This is mind-boggling. A central doctrine of the Christian faith is that Christ, who was fully God and fully man, came as a sacrifice for our sin. All sacrifices offered to the Father had to be without blemish. Perfect. Christ was and is sinless perfection and only He was able to take the sin of the world upon Himself and take upon Himself the wrath of God against all sin. If Christ was not sinless, He was an imperfect sacrifice. We who believe in Him are still lost in our sin. How could almost half the professing church come to believe such a heresy?
We have a huge and growing problem in the church. Too many don't really know who Jesus is, and as a result, don't really know what He accomplished on the cross and their own desperate need for His cleansing blood.There is a culprit here, and the culprit is the church itself. We have been doing and continue to do, a poor job of proclaiming His whole Word. In short, we are not making disciples. We ask people to believe in a Christ we tell them they need, but go into little depth as to His Person, His Work, and a plethora of other Scriptural truths. We offer Jesus as a kind of a welcome addition to our lives, but just an addition, not as Lord and Savior. This sets us up to believe what is often just half truths or outright falsehoods. Erwin McManus said that Christ is being lost in the church that bears His name. The result is the presenting of a Jesus Christ that bears little, if any resemblance to the Christ of the Bible. Many are being led into error and outright shipwreck in their faith lives. Many are embracing another Jesus. One that Peter, the rest of the disciples, and the early church would neither have recognized or received.
I once had a very difficult time with a lady in my church who had befriended a couple from a cult. This couple testified to being followers of Christ and told her they'd believed on Him. For her, their saying they believed in Him was enough. It was a painstaking process for her to accept just what it was they believed about Him, and how unscriptural their beliefs were. This was one who'd grown up in the church, professed to follow Him wholly, but at root, didn't really know just who He was, and what was involved in actually coming to Him in saving faith. I fear that she has a lot of company.
Who do you say He is? Is He the Messiah and Savior who appears in some way through every book of the Bible, a Savior at whose name every knee will bow, or, is He a Jesus fashioned in a more acceptable way to our flesh? A Jesus we can receive on our terms, who brings us good things, but leaves our fallen nature alone. A Jesus who changes everything around us to our desire, but changes nothing within our hearts. Author John Eldredge said he wanted Jesus, the real Jesus. Do you, or do you look for another Jesus. One who changes our outward environment to our liking, but leaves the corrupted environment of our heart alone.
Blessings,
Blessings,
Pastor O
No comments:
Post a Comment